The Simplicity Of The Gospel Has Made Me More Confused Then Ever!? Help Me Understand?

nb408 said:

I'm so confused. I start to question my salvation every time I get angry, annoyed, and impatient. I look at Todd White (YouTube guy on fire for god.) and I'm like man that's how a christian is supposed to look like! Then I feel so convicted because no matter how hard I try to get God to make me that way it doesn't work. I've been striving so hard to be on fire for God and to be free from sin that I feel lost. I want the same passion for God as Todd White does but even when I ask God I don't get any answers. I've been in the word a lot and I'm just so sick of wondering If I'm saved or not because of the things I do! I feel like I have to be completely free from sin like Todd White and Dan Mohler in order to be a true christian and be saved. How do I be free? I'm willing to give up everything if it means this is really true!?

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You just gave a confession that solidly stamps your name into the book of Life. Keep your eyes on Jesus, keep praying for that same thing over and over until you die. I do. I will never quit. I love righteousness and I hate wickedness. Exercising your faith like this, being patient, continuing in the word and in prayer and keep a tight grasp on the feet of Jesus. He will lift you up. He will. He will

You don't hold anyone else up as your
role model as to how a Christian is to act/
live out the faith etc... you only look to
our Lord and Savior & God's Word as to
how you are to conduct yourself, the
Lord said: "Follow me"...so we are to
Follow Him.

Nothing in scripture about trusting in your
feelings either...lots in scripture about trusting
in Jesus though.


There's only One who is free from sin
and that is Jesus...everyone sins--
whether it's in thought or deed.
The men you mentioned aren't any
different, they also sin and the only righteousness
they have and what we have is imparted to us via
Jesus.

Don't be fooled, there aren't any
Christians who don't sin.
As long as we are in these "flesh suits"
we are prone to sin.

It takes time to mature in faith...
Jesus was with his disciples just over
3 years, and the Word of God reveals
that his disciples also struggled in their
faith walks.

Don't look to anyone else's walk just your own relationship with God. Salvation doesn't come about by your work nor does God's approval. The thief on a cross next to Jesus ended up in Heaven. He did no good works and his confession of faith wasn't a standard one that would be accepted by most churches.
Stop concentrated on those around you. Todd White is how Todd White is meant to look. You were made by God for a purpose. He has made you clean and he loves you. Follow him and the rest will follow.

You don't have to try so hard.

If you believe, then you believe, no matter how you feel.

No one is "sin free." All of us sin, daily. When we sin, we confess & repent, trusting in God to forgive us.

Remember the promises of baptism. In baptism, we are marked as Christ's own forever. In baptism, God extends His grace to us. It is the objective way we enter the Church, a tangible hope in the waves of our subjective "feelings" of whether we are Christians, are "saved," etc.

nb408 said:

I'm so confused. I start to question my salvation every time I get angry, annoyed, and impatient. I look at Todd White (YouTube guy on fire for god.) and I'm like man that's how a christian is supposed to look like! Then I feel so convicted because no matter how hard I try to get God to make me that way it doesn't work. I've been striving so hard to be on fire for God and to be free from sin that I feel lost. I want the same passion for God as Todd White does but even when I ask God I don't get any answers. I've been in the word a lot and I'm just so sick of wondering If I'm saved or not because of the things I do! I feel like I have to be completely free from sin like Todd White and Dan Mohler in order to be a true christian and be saved. How do I be free? I'm willing to give up everything if it means this is really true!?

Click to expand...

nb408 said:

I'm so confused. I start to question my salvation every time I get angry, annoyed, and impatient. I look at Todd White (YouTube guy on fire for god.) and I'm like man that's how a christian is supposed to look like! Then I feel so convicted because no matter how hard I try to get God to make me that way it doesn't work. I've been striving so hard to be on fire for God and to be free from sin that I feel lost. I want the same passion for God as Todd White does but even when I ask God I don't get any answers. I've been in the word a lot and I'm just so sick of wondering If I'm saved or not because of the things I do! I feel like I have to be completely free from sin like Todd White and Dan Mohler in order to be a true christian and be saved. How do I be free? I'm willing to give up everything if it means this is really true!?

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You say you are willing to give up everything, but what have you given up? Recently in one of my studies, I was looking at Jesus prayer in the garden. At one point in that account, Jesus goes to Peter and asks Peter why he can't stay away for even an hour to avoid sin. Shortly afterwards, Peter denied Christ 3 times. The point is this, you talk about doing some things, but not others. You say nothing about prayer, nothing about yielding, nothing about asking God, instead you talk about you can't get God to do what you want which is pride, pride being in opposition to God. You say nothing about how long and how you pray, the command being to pray without ceasing.

To be without sin, requires a couple of things that you don't mention here at all, 1. yielding ourselves over to God body, soul, and spirit. This yielding is a humbling of ourselves like the Christ humbled Himself. 2. prayer, Peter was told to pray to avoid sin. Prayer is a wonderful tool for being without sin, it keeps our focus on God and not on ourselves when done according to scripture. 3. seeking after God above all else, even above wanting to be without sin. God wants us to be without sin, so when we seek after God, we want the same thing that God wants, we are just going about achieving that goal His way, not our way. This is where study of the word is helpful, but it is only a start. 4. you are seeking after the relationship others have with God, rather than the relationship you are suppose to have with God. God knows you better than you know yourself, He knows how to reach you, what He wants you to do, how He needs you to live and be in order to fulfill His purpose for you. Sure that includes righteousness, but it is a righteousness He understandings. IOW's these teachers you are looking up to, may or may not be as righteous as they appear, He might need you to be even more righteous than they are. and 5. be genuine, honest, open, and confessing one to another. We recently buried my father, he was a bitter, hateful man but even in his casket, he was trying to pretend he was someone he wasn't. God sees the depths of ourselves, depths that are often hidden even from us, yet we go through life trying to hide that we are struggling, that we sin, that we are just like everyone else in the world. When we open the door to our sins through confession and repentance, God is able to work in ways we can't imagine.

Well, just some thoughts for what their worth.

Oh, as to evidence of your salvation....scripture says that the HS is our guarantee, if you are living in the fruit of the spirit, your salvation is guaranteed, if not, no guarantee...Gal. 5 tells us that fruit. Be careful though, this is a growing process and does not need to be perfected in us until we have learned to yield ourselves completely to Him. IOW's give yourself time to grow in the yielding before judging yourself too harshly as many people do.

"Of course", I do not know the men you are talking about. But, in general, ones on TV and YouTube can know how to act, to make themselves seem the way you see them to be. You have perhaps experienced how a movie actor can have you feeling he or she is really the character that the actor is pretending to be. And how you are now can effect your judgment; if you are not doing well, be careful how fast you are to assume someone is either real or not for real.

Peter says, to leaders >

"nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock." (1 Peter 5:3)

Yes, by the way, a pastor giving a message where you go to church can be acting, too.

But an example can be a person whom you know personally, so you can feed on his or her example. And their example includes how they share with us about how our Father is correcting them, so that we can benefit and seek God, also, for this correction > Hebrews 12:6-11. Do the men you mention ever use themselves as examples, of how God is correcting them?

nb408 said:

I'm so confused. I start to question my salvation every time I get angry, annoyed, and impatient. I look at Todd White (YouTube guy on fire for god.) and I'm like man that's how a christian is supposed to look like! Then I feel so convicted because no matter how hard I try to get God to make me that way it doesn't work. I've been striving so hard to be on fire for God and to be free from sin that I feel lost. I want the same passion for God as Todd White does but even when I ask God I don't get any answers. I've been in the word a lot and I'm just so sick of wondering If I'm saved or not because of the things I do! I feel like I have to be completely free from sin like Todd White and Dan Mohler in order to be a true christian and be saved. How do I be free? I'm willing to give up everything if it means this is really true!?

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Peter was saved and he ended up denying the Lord Jesus Christ 3 times and then having to repent later (John 18), but through that all, he was still saved and went on to do great things in helping spread the word of God (Acts 3,4, and much more). We are not going to be perfect, but through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we will be made to become more and more like Jesus. Continue to dwell in the Word of the Lord, the Word of the Lord is life (Isaiah 55:10-11

10“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. )! You are on the right path. Seek God in prayer, constant prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17 pray without ceasing) and don't let the enemy deceive you into thinking that your anger, annoyance, or impatience is too much for God to work out in you. Just lay it all at His feet and ask for His help in all things and trust Him to work it out in you. God bless.

nb408 said:

I'm so confused. I start to question my salvation every time I get angry, annoyed, and impatient. I look at Todd White (YouTube guy on fire for god.) and I'm like man that's how a christian is supposed to look like! Then I feel so convicted because no matter how hard I try to get God to make me that way it doesn't work. I've been striving so hard to be on fire for God....

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It sounds to me that you simply need to get straight in your mind what the Gospel teaches us. If you are stuck thinking that we earn our way to heaven and can lose salvation at any moment in life when we slip up, you're going to become just what you describe here.

But that isn't what the Gospel teaches.

When you realize that none of us deserves salvation but that Jesus made forgiveness possible and that we do not lose that forgiveness if and when there is a sin, you will see the whole of life differently. I'd suggest committing yourself to a closer study of Scripture and Christian doctrine, and you may well cast off the gloom you've been feeling.

Our future-coming genius-intelligent minds and measure-perfect bodies of Christ is definitely life-transforming and requires Christ's patience through faith, even while Satan's spiritual warfare can create confusion since our present earth-born minds and bodies are not our true sinless physical vessels or bodies ever since Adam and Eve had sinned:.
Had they not sinned by refusing to follow Satan's fruit-eating request then mankind's history would be without corruption, crime, confusion of the Word of God - in fact no Word of God at all if Christ's righteousness and wisdom are written in our sinless hearts.:
Definitely takes your whole Christian life to think what should have happened if Adam and Eve hadn't sinned and how Jesus has been prophesied or future-seen by Jehovah's eternal mind on 'eternity' - a word that describes the beginning of time and the endless future of time -
to bring back a perfect paradise Earth without hospitals and funerals, without war, pollution, disease and disability of all sorts, and especially without Satan who is just as confused because he has no sinless heart:.
Sometimes I wonder if television episodes or movies on the supernatural, such as Poltergeist, would create a false reality or misconception that ghosts which rob innocent lives through a non-terrorist act like a fatal car or work-related accident, and that individuals would deliberately become argumentative or violent towards a family member or friend/ stranger, so that if killed, then they would enter the invisible dimensional world of ghosts as "more than conquerors of Christ", just like Jesus with supernatural powers, to defeat them and prevent future tragedies of loved ones like wife and kids, friends and especially the community as a family of many different nations that want to remain in peaceful harmony and properity when it comes to fighting hunger and poverty.;'*';.

nb408 said:

I'm so confused. I start to question my salvation every time I get angry, annoyed, and impatient. I look at Todd White (YouTube guy on fire for god.) and I'm like man that's how a christian is supposed to look like! Then I feel so convicted because no matter how hard I try to get God to make me that way it doesn't work. I've been striving so hard to be on fire for God and to be free from sin that I feel lost. I want the same passion for God as Todd White does but even when I ask God I don't get any answers. I've been in the word a lot and I'm just so sick of wondering If I'm saved or not because of the things I do! I feel like I have to be completely free from sin like Todd White and Dan Mohler in order to be a true christian and be saved. How do I be free? I'm willing to give up everything if it means this is really true!?

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Sanctification is a life-long process of being made to be more like Christ in his obedience to God. Every Christian is at a different in this process, so you should not compare your progress to others. Todd White may make great youtube videos, but he is not exempt from the struggle with sin either and certainly not free from sin. Keep in mind that your struggle with sin is about sanctification, not justification, so your salvation is not in question.

nb408 said:

I feel like I have to be completely free from sin like Todd White and Dan Mohler in order to be a true christian and be saved. How do I be free?

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Both these guys (Dan was Todd's first teacher) stress identity in Christ. Look at Dan's video "how to resist the devil" and you'll see identity in Christ was foundational to him almost from the very outset, and was the key to his overcoming. And he taught Todd that during Todd's huge initial doubting period.

As others here say, we are all different, with different gifts and callings. The key is to follow God's leading. But if "doing the stuff" is in your heart, go for it! Remember that when you miss it, that does not change your identity. You came to Christ because you needed Him. The only way to gain the victory over the world, flesh and devil is to keep abiding in Christ, His love and His faith. Come to Him afresh every day.

Simply put, forget the things behind and press forward to the high call. Jesus is faithful!

nb408 said:

I'm so confused. I start to question my salvation every time I get angry, annoyed, and impatient. I look at Todd White (YouTube guy on fire for god.) and I'm like man that's how a christian is supposed to look like! Then I feel so convicted because no matter how hard I try to get God to make me that way it doesn't work. I've been striving so hard to be on fire for God and to be free from sin that I feel lost. I want the same passion for God as Todd White does but even when I ask God I don't get any answers. I've been in the word a lot and I'm just so sick of wondering If I'm saved or not because of the things I do! I feel like I have to be completely free from sin like Todd White and Dan Mohler in order to be a true christian and be saved. How do I be free? I'm willing to give up everything if it means this is really true!?

Click to expand...

Friend, God isn't looking at you and thinking, "Good grief! This guy is so far from being like Todd or Dan!" No, God's standard is waaaay higher. He wants you to be like Christ. I can tell you with certainty that as righteous as Todd and Dan may appear to you to be, compared to Christ, they have a very, very, veeerrrry long way to go.

You know, it sounds like you're trying awfully hard to be who you already are - in Christ. When you were saved, you were fundamentally transformed and made a new creature in Christ. You gained a new spiritual position before God. You are made righteous and sanctified, and are united with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection; you are seated with Christ in the heavenlies and made a joint-heir with him. So, the question is, then, are you living like it?

You can't be who you don't know yourself to be. "The me I see is the me I'll be." Many Christians go about totally ignorant of who they are in Christ. And it shows! They don't know that they have been made dead to sin; they don't know that they are new creatures in Christ; they don't know they are kings and priests unto God; they don't know that God has given them His Holy Spirit. And because they don't know these things, they just keep living like the person they've always been and wondering why the Christian life is so impossible.

It may help you also to understand that you are not saved by virtue of your good living. God saves you because of your faith in Christ and what he did for you on the cross. That's it. You are accepted by God and declared righteous before Him because of your faith in the Saviour. No matter how much you stumble and fall your salvation is secure because it doesn't rest on you and your capacity to live righteously.

Knowing who you are in Christ, knowing what your spiritual identity is, will help you be who God has made you to be, but making your spiritual position a reality in your daily experience, your condition, requires the power of God's Spirit. And the only way to have the power of God's Spirit flowing freely in your life is for you to get low, to submit to God's will and way in every part of your life, to be convinced that of yourself you have no ability whatever to be like Christ. Surrender to God, yield to the leading and conviction of His Spirit, and depend entirely upon him to bring your spiritual position in Christ into your daily condition. As the saying goes, "Let go and let God." Let go of Self-effort; let go of self-will; let go of self-interest and moment-by-moment let God have full reign in your life.

Romans 12:1
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Romans 6:13
13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

Selah.

Wanted to comment on your post "simplicity of the Gospel". These guys like Todd White, are false teachers basically teaching works for salvation. You can't be saved by trying to be good enough. We are saved apart from works (Romans 4:5). Jesus Christ, God Himself, is the only way to heaven, He died on the cross to pay for all of our sins in full, and then Jesus resurrected from the dead. To be in heaven, believe in Jesus Christ to take you to heaven, that easy (John 6:47). Believe in Jesus for eternal life, and you have eternal life. Believers still sin and still struggle with sin. Believe the promise of Jesus, and not your attempts at being "good enough". Salvation is a permanent free gift given when you believe in Jesus for it.

Dan Mohler is not a false teacher. I just needed to clear that up. They are not works based, and all you would need to do is listen to a few of their talks to know that. It is 100% about by faith through grace, love and relationship and they teach that and show that in everything they say and do. That being said..

You're stressing out way to hard. Focus more on love. First off.. How loved you are. God doesnt want you trying to get everything right.. He wants you to be and become. Listen to the way Dan prays.. It's thanking and believing. He would never give a list of things to do for Dan's holy work out regimen and even jokes about that in one of the videos posted.

Jesus first. Not Dan, not Todd.. And they say that. Spend time with God. We are changed through this loving relationship we get to have. You hang out and spend time with him, and you can't help but become more like him.

Lastly.. Identity. Know who you are.. And know who others are. If you see yourself as God sees you, and love others as God does.. Then there is not much to be angry about because you're too busy seeing the brokenness of identity and that Jesus is the loving cure. Love them, as you love yourself.. As God loves you.

You talk about being on fire for God.

Fire is quiet.

"rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God." (1 Peter 3:4)